Oly Rookie

Hey there,

I'm ready to go, all systems CHECK!! I don't think I've ever been this prepared for an olympic distance. I went along with Curtis and Tina as they went for the transition practice, then Curtis and I rode the course again. We know the bike course really well now and it'll be a huge advantage since there are a bunch of corners in the res. areas. Some descents even have 90 degree corners at the bottom. The competitive side of me tested them a bit, don't worry I'll be safe, but I do want to take them wide and fast(unless of course I'm coming up on a slower rider). We know the run course as well, at first glance the hills seem pretty bad but they aren't. They'll def. hurt with tired legs on the fourth lap, but what the hey it's a race. They aren't supposed to be easy even if it's a C race.

Part of me tells myself that this race means nothing to me, it's simply a hard training effort. Another part of me still has expectations though, it's still a race right??? The gun goes off and someone hits a switch inside of you that tells you to GOOOOOOOOOOOO. I'd love to go out there and get a PR, but honestly I don't think I have a chance. You see we have flat terrain in Manitoba and most of our courses were simply one out and back. None of this riding along streets, take this turn, then ride a bit, take that turn, up a hill down a hill then make a hard right, etc. Oh well everyone has to do the same, in a way it'll be fun, not a boring "put your head down and go" type of race. Reminds me of a crit race, you could use a road bike in the race with so few straight aways.

The water will prolly be around 12 degrees, air around that too by the time my heat starts. The sun will be out so I'll prolly just go with a tri singlet and arm warmers. I'll keep a long sleeve there just in case I change my mind after the swim. It's a long run to the bikes so I might do some cartwheels or roll around on the grass to get warm. I really don't want to fiddle around with clothes too much since I know the hands will be completely numb.

My goals;

No Trevor I won't be going sub 2. I would LOVE to say I've done that but I really doubt I could even get that time if I was allowed to do the swim, bike, run dif days. I'm guessing I'll be in the 2:20-2:30 range(I know you were kidding). I'm guessing swim will be 25-28?, bike really no idea but would like 1:10-1:20? and run as long as I'm in the 40s, 40-50. So what does that give me, 2:15-2:38? hee hee that's quite a big gap there, but that gives me a big cushion, hopefully I won't have to add time to the back end. ;) It's been so long since I've done one of these so I'm kind of a newbie.

The race plan will be to go ez on the first lap of the swim, concentrate on long strokes and stay relaxed, then try to pick it up on the second IF I feel I can. I don't want to get to tired on the swim because I know I'll start to zig zag(swim extra), plus if I'm anerobic coming into transition I'll take longer there.

For the bike I know it takes me a bit to get biking legs after the swim so I may need a couple laps to feel strong. I'm not going to wear a hr monitor cause of all the hills/crit style. so I'll have to go on feeling, gonna go as hard as I can minus one gear(mental gear not bike gear). I hope to be around 145-150 bpm, I should know where that is, but then again I'll never know for sure. :P Like I said to Greg yesterday I might not want to know what the numbers are on the fourth lap up the last hill.

The run, well what can I say, I'll just do what ever I can. There's not much you can do after a hard TT but run on what's left. Hopefully I'll have enough to be able to push the hill and relax on the down hills to recover for the next lap/hill.

It'll be fun, I hope I do well and cross the finish line feeling like I laid it all out there, yet paced myself evenly. Good luck to everyone else out there racing tomorrow, I hope you get good weather and that things go well for ya.